As the seemingly endless stream of US horror remakes fade from the memory, it's always nice to return to the originals that inspired them to remind ourselves just how good American horror movies once were. Thus if any of you can even remember Glen Morgan's limp 2006 reworking of Black Christmas, you'll have the chance to push it from your mind next month when Metrodome release Bob Clark's 1974 cult original on UK DVD.

A sorority group's Christmas holiday plans are violently disturbed by a sadistic, obscene phone call that threatens to shatter the yuletide peace for good. Their fear is calmed by the local police who assure them there's nothing to worry about, but when the first body turns up, the depraved caller's threats soon become a horrifying reality. Slowly the girls are picked off one by one and a frantic search begins to find the killer before their white Christmas turns blood red.

Often regarded as a precursor to the stalk-and-slash sub-genre – it was released four years before John Carpenter's genre-defining Halloween, Black Christmas remains one of the great North American horror films of the 1970s (it was, we should remember, Canadian in origin) and boasts a stormingly good cast that includes Margot Kidder, Keir Dullea, Olivia Hussey, Art Hindle and the great John Saxon.

Black Christmas will be released on UK DVD on 18th October 2010 by Metrodome Distribution Ltd at the RRP of £15.99. That's the good news. The bad news is that there's not a single extra on the disc, which compares poorly with previous US DVD releases from Critical Mass (which included documentaries, TV and radio spots, two commentary tracks and a rather nice easter egg) and Somerville House (documentary, cast interviews, midnight screening Q&A, two newly discovered original scenes – also available on Blu-ray), both of which are still available if you want to go searching.